“Hyper violent for me”: Laura Smet still marked by childhood trauma, it has to do with a cult house of Johnny

In an interview with Paris Match, Laura Smet recounts having been traumatized by an episode from her childhood.

© Bestimage Laura Smet &agrave the French cinematheque, in November 2024

IN BRIEF

• In the 1980s, Nathalie Baye met Johnny Hallyday during a rehearsal where he arrives late, which marks the beginning of their relationship and the birth of their daughter, Laura Smet.
• Laura Smet remembers with emotion the villa La Lorada, sold to pay off Johnny's debts, and expresses her trauma of not having been able to say goodbye to her dogs.
• Discover how Johnny Hallyday's financial habits have marked his daughter Laura Smet, revealing a generous man but often in debt.

It all started with a simple delay. In the early 1980s, Nathalie Baye was asked to play in a sketch with Johnny Hallyday. The singer showed up for rehearsals two hours after the time he had been given. The actress furious: she hates people who are late. Intimidated by the woman who would become his partner, the singer sent his henchman to her place.

After the thunderbolt, a girl will be born, Laura Smet, who today recounts her young years with her father in the columns of the magazine Paris Match. The actress, mother of a little boy named Léo, in particular evokes to our colleagues the long holidays that she spent in the singer's house, La Lorada.

Laura Smet: this childhood memory that traumatized Johnny Hallyday's daughter

In 1989, Johnny Hallyday built a Mexican-style hacienda in the town of Ramatuelle. The villa named La Lorada welcomed &from 1990 regularly welcomed his children. Financial conflicts with his record company forced him to separate from it with regret 10 years later. Laura Smet still warns today a real trauma.

“I had two dogs there, I couldn't say goodbye to them, regrets the actress. Çit was extremely violent for me, it was the house of my memories. But it didn't belong to him, his record company had bought it and it had to be sold to repay his debts. He didn't dare talk to me about it.” She concludes, annoyed: “My father has been fooled by the system all his life.”

Laura Smet: “I've always seen him pay”

It was not uncommon for Johnny Hallyday to repay the money that he was advanced thanks to his tours. “Ultradéspendier” and “gambler”, the performer of Requiem pour un fou “had a side of a big child who wanted to have fun”. “When he invited 40 people to a restaurant after the concerts, he was the one who paid the bill. I always saw him pay”, Laura Smet adds.

She continues: “When I learned after his death that'he had always lived at credit, çit made me very sad for him.” In an interview with BFMTV in December 2023, Laeticia Hallyday confirmed the statements of the first daughter of her late husband. According to the mother of Jade and Joy, the Taulier would have left at his death a tax debt amounting to 33 million euros.